Although labor force participation rate of women increases day by day, the number of female employees in senior management positions is still very limited. In 2017, 34% of global corporations do not have women in top management (Women in Business: New Perspectives on Risk and Reward Report, 2017). While the proportion of women on the board of directors is limited to 12%, the proportion of women board chairmen is only 4% (Deloitte, 2015). The difficulties women face in promoting to senior management positions have attracted researchers’ attention. In 1986, Hymovitz and Schellhard first used the glass-ceiling metaphor to describe the constraints that prevent females to promote top management positions in corporations, state institutions, educational institutions or nonprofit organizations (Hymowitz and Schellhardt, 1986). The factors that lead to the formation of glass ceiling in enterprises can be individual (women’s roles as wife and/or mother, time management problems), organizational (organizational culture, company policies and the difficulties women experience in participating in informal communication networks) (Mizrahi ve Aracı, 2010) and social (gender discrimination in society and gender stereotypes). The other concept that is examined in this study is power distance. The concept of power distance is one of the cultural dimensions described by Geert Hofstede and it is defined as “the extent to which the less powerful members of institutions and organisations within a country expect and accept that power is distributed unequally.” (Hofstede, 2003). In other words, power distance shows “the level of acceptance or rejection of differences and inequalities by members in the distribution of power in the social system” (Turan, Durceylan and Şişman, 2005). The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between the glass ceiling obstacles and the perceived level of power distance. In addition, this research investigates whether gender differences affect people’s perceptions on these variables or not. The research data was collected from two universities in Iraq since women who live in this region face more barriers in the business world and the social life. In 2016, the proportion of women participating in the world labor force was 50%. The labor force participation rate of females was 23% in Arab countries and only 15% in Iraq. On the other hand, the proportion of men participating in the workforce was 76% globally, 75% in Arab countries and 70% in Iraq (The World Bank, 2017). This difference in the labor participation rates of women and men in Iraq is basically a result of the social norms. Many girls in Iraq can’t go to school at all and the biggest obstacle for girls to go to school is seen as their families. The refusal of parents to send their daughters to the school and the early marriage of young girls affect the labor force participation rate of females negatively. Interestingly, there is a positive relationship between the education levels of women in the country and the unemployment rates. The unemployment rate among women with undergraduate degrees has climbed to 68% (Inter-Agency Information and Analysis Unit (IAU), 2012). It can be concluded that jobs are deemed as appropriate for women in the country do not require a bachelor’s degree. In this study, a total of 536 questionnaires were distributed during the data collection process. 341 surveys were sent to University 1, 300 of them were answered and 297 of them were considered valid. 195 questionnaires were sent to University 2, 129 of them were answered and all of the answered questionnaires were considered valid. Total participation rate was 80%. Of the 426 academics who participated in the study, 64.32% were male and 35.68% were female. 3,66% of the participants were professors, 13,15% of them were associate professors, 17,61% of them were assistant professors, 39,20% of them were lecturers and 26,29% of them were research assistants. 21.37% of these academics had an administrative role in their universities. Hypotheses of the study were formulated as: H1: There is a relationship between academics’ power distance perceptions and their perceptions of glass ceiling syndrome; H2: There are gender differences in glass ceiling perceptions of academics; H3: There are gender differences in academics’ power distance perceptions. The Pearson correlation method was used to test H1 and T-Tests were used to test H2 and H3. The results of the research revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between glass ceiling obstacles perception and the perceived level of power distance. In addition, there is no gender-based difference between academics’ perceptions of glass ceiling obstacles and power distance. In other words, H1 was supported and H2 and H3 were not supported.